Monthly Archives: January 2013

On a related note to my last post, here a few fatshion blogs I’ve discovered recently. I realized that I haven’t updated my blogroll in a while, and I need to do that–and I’m thinking about making a links page instead so it doesn’t clutter up the front of my blog.

Lesley and Marianne have been on fire over there. You only have to look at my Friday links posts to see how much amazing writing comes out of that site, week after week. (There’s also some shitty writing, but obviously I’m not linking to it.) And there’s a great community in the comments, as long as you avoid certain posts.

But then Jane posts something like this. And just ew, ew, ewwww. Asking people to click on the site so that the writers can get bonuses feels so wrong and squicky and manipulative. What the hell kind of business model is that?

This is one of the many reasons why I feel torn about reading great writing on a site that, at its core, is about profit. I’m not going to stop reading Marianne, Lesley, s.e., Somer, Kate Conway, or any of the other authors I really like, but I do have issues with the kind of stuff that get done in the name of profit–from things that are merely gross like Jane begging for clicks, to things that are really awful and harmful like promoting Hugo Schwyzer, or cross-posting rape apologism from the Good Men Project. (No, I’m not going to link to either debacle. You can Google if you really want to know more.)

In other words, blargh. I have mixed feelings about XOJane.

But there have been a bunch of promising developments in the fat-o-sphere.

Issa from Love Live Grow is working on a site called Glorify, which will be a basecamp for the fat acceptance web. It’s going to have resources, message boards, a blog, and much more–and I’m going to be writing over there! It’s going to launch on February 14th, so stay tuned, and make sure sign up for the email list.

Also, Redefining Body Image has added a bunch of moderators, and they’ve been posting great stuff. They briefly had Facebook comments, which then disappeared, but I’m hoping they’ll add Disqus or some other way for non-Tumblr-ites to comment soon. There’s definitely a lot of fat acceptance happening on Tumblr, and it’s worth checking out even if you, like me, don’t have an account.

Another blog to keep an eye on is the Nearsighted Owl. Rachele has been posting amazing parodies of weight-loss ads called Shame-Less Ads, and all sorts of other goodness.

There’s been such an explosion of fat activism and fatshion all over the internet lately, and it’s awesome. I miss having a centralized place like Shapely Prose, and I feel kind of queasy about XOJane, but I’m glad to discover new blogs every day.

On the personal level, my brightest-burning desire right now is to see the world. I’ve been outside the Northeastern US only a few times in my life, and I really want to see more of both my own country and other countries. I love New England–in fact, I’m pretty sure my veins run with maple syrup–and I know I want to settle down here eventually. This is my home, my community. The land I feel in my bones. I know that’s a gift: to be so connected to a place in this age of disconnection and displacement.

But I know I can’t settle down without experiencing at least a few of the natural beauties, and the cultures, of other places. I’m still working out the practicalities, but it’s definitely something I want to do.

After getting way too excited in Deb–and acquiring some great work-appropriate basics, including a super-comfy black blazer–I discovered that the mall also contained a Torrid store!

I’ve been buying clothing online from Torrid for years, but had never made it to a real-life store. And although their clothing is much less exciting than it used to be–less goth/punk/alternative, more expensive, lower quality–they still have some stuff I like. Just walking into any non-Lane Bryant plus size store is a little too exciting.

My experience with clothing stores in NYC may have been unfortunate, but I had a much better time at a mall in Connecticut, where we were visiting Steve’s parents on the way down. Steve and I are both from CT, but from different areas, so this was a mall I’d never been to before.

This mall contained not only Lane Bryant (which we don’t even have anymore in Boston), but Torrid and Deb!

PROM DRESSES IN MY SIZE HOLY CRAP.

When I walked into Deb, it was so exciting I almost wanted to cry. Here was a store full of trendy, colorful, fun–if cheaply-made–clothing, and I could actually try on half of it!

I loved the twirliness of this one. It would be perfect for contra prom!